Downtown traffic woes to continue near historic Frick building
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Drivers could face a month of scrambled traffic Downtown as workers secure the historic Frick Building.
Lane closures on Forbes Avenue and Grant Street may continue up to four weeks to safeguard passers-by after granite fell some 250 feet from the building’s cornice over the weekend, Pittsburgh Public Safety Director Wendell Hissrich said Tuesday. A northbound lane of Grant could reopen as early as Thursday morning, although other reopenings will take longer, he said.
“There is some concern, still, about the building,” Mr. Hissrich said, addressing reporters on a barren stretch of Grant near Forbes. He urged people to stay outside yellow police tape near the landmark, 437 Grant St., in case more stone breaks free from the 115-year-old structure.
“All it takes is just one piece falling from 250 feet to injure or kill someone,” Mr. Hissrich said. “We still have to exercise some caution here, make sure the public’s safe.”
A stone piece estimated at roughly 9 cubic feet — and
nearly 1,500 pounds — plummeted from the building’s southwest corner some time late Saturday or early Sunday. Shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, someone alerted emergency responders to debris in the roadway at Grant and Forbes, according to the city. No injuries were reported.
Officials have since shut Forbes between Ross Street and Cherry Way, plus Grant Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, as a precaution amid repair plans. Mr. Hissrich said the city should know by Wednesday whether a northbound lane of Grant can reopen in time for Thursday morning’s rush hour.
City leaders said they are collaborating with the building owner, New Jerseybased Rugby Realty, to address the roughly 21-story property. The city and the company are designing a temporary Jersey-barrierstyle wall to contain debris from any further collapses, said Maura Kennedy, the city director of permits, licenses and inspections.
She said a disrupted piece of granite still in place near the initial collapse could weigh about 800 pounds.
“Obviously, it’s a tremendous concern, to have additional failures there,” Ms. Kennedy said. “That’s why we’re taking the situation so seriously. And we’ve cordoned off the debris zone, where the previous collapse shattered” in a crosswalk at Grant and Forbes.
The barrier wall should form an L-shape from Grant onto Forbes, standing around the building in the roadway, according to the city. While workers put together the wall, Ms. Kennedy said, other crews will extend scaffolding up the height of the building to encapsulate and work on the damaged cornice.
Once the scaffolding is done, she said, the wall can be removed to restore regular traffic patterns. The building remains open for business.
It wasn’t immediately clear Tuesday how long the work would take, and details about the collapse’s cause — expected in an engineering report — had yet to emerge while an assessment continued. Speculation has centered on water infiltration.
The building exterior had no outstanding code violations with the city, which will require that Rugby fix the problem, Ms. Kennedy has said. She said the company has been cooperative.
“We maintain our properties to the highest standard. It does go without saying that if we knew we had a problem with this cornice, we would have fixed it,” said Larry Walsh, Rugby’s chief operating officer in the Pittsburgh area.
On a related front, Guy Costa, the Pittsburgh chief operating officer, said the city would talk with Rugby about recouping some of the city’s expenses, including for police protection and public works in the area. A cost estimate was not immediately available.